Those classy folk at Deep Silver are evidently so unsure of their new product that they're falling back on the age-old adage of all publicity being good publicity. The European/Australian Zombie Bait edition will come complete with a foot tall, mutilated female bust. And in this case, "bust" is actually an hilariously appropriate term, if by hilarious you mean queasily.
If your stomach is strong and your outrage mighty, click on...
Putting aside the obvious gross factor, this has riled the Internet up something chronic, mostly for it's could-not-be-any-more-obvious objectification of the lady in question. It's also been pointed out that "Zombie Bait" implies that the bust is actually a corpse, not a zombie, which adds an additional layer of necrophilia to the whole bewilderingly bad decision.
I am also compelled to point out that this is not how a bikini works. It needs a full neck to maintain fabric tension. Granted this has not really factored in the controversy at hand.
Being female myself it could be argued that I'm more sensitive to such things (wouldn't you be??), but this is a pretty disheartening step. Surely we're past the stage where gaming is a Guy thing? No one still believes that, do they? Do these people even have a PR department? Who the hell let this through? I will eat my hat if there is a single lady on this development team.
Deep Silver have responded with bewilderment over the whole thing, releasing this:
A statement on the Zombie Bait Edition:
We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition”, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector’s Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island.
We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver’s entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.
Translation: We're so sorry you're butt-hurt by the fricken sweet rack on our epic special edition piece! It sucks that you're so delicate. Luckily only Europe and Australia are going to be exposed to this, so you Americans can quiet the hell down! The rest of you, why are you complaining about additional tits? Not that they compare to the ones I scored last night. AAAW YEEAH. *fistbump*
Note that there is nothing addressing the bust being female, and nothing saying they're recalling the item. And nothing really saying they're sorry, just sorry that folks are upset. Ugh.
Read about on Joystiq. Just don't read the comments if you want to keep your teeth.
Although you advised against it, I still read all of the comments at Joystiq. WOW.
ReplyDeleteYesss. Apparently we still have a ways to go.
DeleteAlso read the comments. The guy who said it would look good in his collection...collection of WHAT exactly? Creep.
ReplyDeleteat least such a thing in the vicinity would guarantee he'd never get laid.
DeleteI think that its a pretty sweet idea, a lil gross but still cool, and it ties in with the whole half eaten corpses thing that you see littering the grounds of Banoi. Seriously, its not like people haven't seen a pair of tits on the internet. And as far as being a journalist Suzanne, aren't you supposed to be impartial and simply present the facts to people, instead of skewing your entire report from a feminist 'herp derp tits', and I fin it HIGHLY IRONIC that you complain about this particular pair of tits being posted on the internet, when you've got your tits hanging out in your profile pic (tbh they aint that great either).
DeleteI'm not a journalist, why on earth would you think that? Everything on here is an opinion piece.
DeleteAnd it's not a corset, dear. Corset require structure. If you're going to troll, then troll about things you know something about. Obviously ladies underwear is a oblique and mystifying thing for you.
Anonymous - that's an especially dopey comment because it entirely ignores context. We're all pro tits, I'm sure, but it doesn't mean we want to see a pair on a mutilated corpse. It's like the difference between a girl having a nice shade of lipstick, and a girl having a nice shade of lipstick while her head is impaled on a spike. You seem to have entirely skipped the circumstance and focused in on what is probably the smallest part of the issue here.
DeleteBut then again, you also think the people on this site are "journalists" so I'm guessing that comprehension isn't necessarily a strong suit? But you're just as entitled to your opinion and if you think this dismembered woman would look "pretty sweet" in your bedroom or living room, then more power to you! It will probably go great with your curtains.
Oh, and only fat girls wear corsets because they're too lazy to do abdominal crunches :P
ReplyDelete